Twenty Eighth Fungal Genetics Conference

? DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): The 28th Fungal Genetics Conference will be held at the Asilomar Conference Center from March 17-22, 2015. Approximately 950 scientists and students from around the US and the world will attend. A primary goal of this biennial meeting is to promote the dissemination of the latest research on all aspects of the biology of fungi with a focus on filamentous fungi. Another important goal is to promote communication and collaboration between Medical Mycologists and those working with fungal plant pathogens, saprobic fungi and symbiotic fungi. This has led to significant recruitment of mycologists to join the Medical Mycology research community. A better understanding of the biology and interactions of fungi with their hosts and environment will lead to development of therapeutics to treat fungal diseases. The meeting will consist of four plenary sessions, four sets of concurrent sessions, and three poster sessions. Topics of the four plenary sessions are: Evolution, Development, Interactions and Signals. The 28 concurrent session topics include: Fungus-animal interactions, Population genomics and microevolution, Impact of fungal metabolism on pathogenicity, Multicellular development/Crosstalk between morphogenetic and developmental pathways in filamentous fungi, Circadian rhythms and photobiology, Extremophilic fungi, Molecular evolution of antifungal resistance, Cytoskeleton, endocytosis and endosome, Mating systems and sexual development, Gene regulatory networks, Secondary Metabolism, In vivo imaging of host-pathogen interactions, Dynamics of genome evolution, Surface growth in filamentous fungi and yeast, Fungus-plant interactions, Stress responses and senescence, RNA metabolism and transport, Epigenetics, Chromatin, and Genome Defense, Cell cycle, Effector biology, ROS in development and pathogenicity, Fungal Biotechnology, and Early diverging fungi. Seven of the plenary session speakers have direct relevance to medically important fungi and eight of the 23 concurrent sessions having a significant focus on medical mycology. Many of the other concurrent sessions will include talks on medically relevant fungi. This meeting places a strong emphasis on the participation of young scientists and students, particularly those from underrepresented groups. Many have their first opportunity to present their research at a major international conference. Funds are requested to help defray the travel and participation costs of students, postdoctoral researchers and some young scientists, and will be distributed on a need basis.